Fairfax County Police Watch: Activist group releases report alleging 57 incidents of police misconduct in West Baltimore

Mallory Sofastaii

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - A new report alleges a pattern of police misconduct in West Baltimore. The group No Boundaries Coalition presented the initial findings of their report in Annapolis on Tuesday.

They wanted the release their report to coincide with the Senate hearings on a bill to restore accountability to policing.

According to the report summary, 453 of 1500 West Baltimore residents surveyed following the death of Freddie Gray had stories of police misconduct. However, only 39 people were willing to speak on record. The group attributed that to a high level of fear of police retaliation. That's why organizers said they want to see legislators hold police accountable by implementing new laws that rebuild trust.

“Years ago, we were a community, but now we're so far off from one another. I don't know my officers, I don't know their names, they don't know me and that creates a great problem in our community, it needs to change,” said Elder Rev. Clyde William Harris, a co-founder of the No Boundaries Coalition.

The group is asking for anti-racism and de-escalation training, a community policing model, and regular meetings between local leaders, neighbors, and officers.

“We have a force together to bring people out to vote and we're looking for actions, people to represent us, lawmakers to represent us and give us what we want,” said Elder Harris.

The Senate bill would change the way officers are trained and set new requirements for people who file complaints against officers.

The No Boundaries Coalition full report on police misconduct in West Baltimore is expected to be released next Tuesday.

Baltimore City Police Commissioner Kevin Davis released a statement on the police reform bills. “I support many of the reforms contained within these bills and believe such measures are important steps in improving the relationship between police and the community,” he said.

He added that he would be happy to talk to reform advocates and lawmakers for solutions that increase transparency within the department while still allowing officers to do their jobs effectively.

Morrogh finds cop he doesn’t love. In other news, hell freezes.

Probe of fatal police shooting goes to federal authorities

By Justin Jouvenal/Post

The Fairfax County prosecutor has turned over the investigation of a fatal police shooting of an unarmed Springfield man to federal authorities, citing complications with the five-month-old case.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ray Morrogh said the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia has agreed to continue the probe into the death of 46-year-old John Geer, who was shot during a standoff with Fairfax County police in August. No one has been charged in the incident.

“There is a conflict of interest that has arisen in the case,” Morrogh said Thursday. “And there is a second potential conflict of interest that has arisen out of my office. . . . This is the prudent thing to do.”

Morrogh declined to describe the nature of the conflicts because the investigation is ongoing. The U.S. attorney’s office said Thursday that it could not confirm or deny any investigation or comment on pending investigations.

Police went to Geer’s Pebble Brook Court home on Aug. 29 because of a report of a domestic disturbance. Geer’s father, Don Geer, said his son was upset because his girlfriend, the mother of his two children, had decided to leave him.

John Geer had thrown his girlfriend’s belongings in the front yard. She called police and told them that Geer had a firearm. Police said they tried for about 50 minutes to persuade Geer to leave the home, but he refused.

Don Geer said he watched the climax of the encounter. He said that he could not hear what officers were saying to his son but that he saw him standing with empty hands resting on top of a screen door at the home’s entrance.

At some point, John Geer began to slowly lower his hands and an officer opened fire, hitting Geer in the chest, his father said. Geer retreated inside and closed the door. A SWAT team eventually entered the home and found Geer dead.

Don Geer said detectives later told him that his son did not have a gun on him at the time of the shooting but that there was a holstered handgun a couple of steps from the front door.

Don Geer said it appeared to him that the shooting was unjustified, but he was unsure what to make of the probe being turned over to federal authorities.

“I don’t know whether that’s good or bad — if I had a better idea of why they are doing it, I could form an opinion,” he said.

Geer and friends of his son have been critical of how long the investigation has taken, but Morrogh said police and prosecutors were working to explore all the evidence. He did not think federal prosecutors would have to start from scratch.

“No one wants these things to linger on,” Morrogh said.

Our ink will outlast his career

Under the reign of former Chief of Police Rhorer the Fairfax County Police arrested a man for not wearing clothes in his house while he made coffee, set up an eye doctor on a gambling charge and then used the SWAT team to kill him. An investigation into the charge that the Doctor’s primary clients were cops has never been investigated. The police gunned down an emotionally unstable man because cop who shot him wrongly assumed the man was trying to escape. He wasn’t. The cops also shot dead four other citizens under highly questionable circumstances. The department under Rhorer was sued multiple times by citizens. So did they fire Rhorer? Naw they promoted him. According to news reports Rhorer draws a salary of $191,168 per year as Deputy Fairfax County Executive as well as a concurrent pension from the Fairfax County police of $173000 per year.

Occupation by force

According to the most recent U.S. Census figures, nearly one in five Fairfax residents (17.5 percent) is of Asian descent while Hispanics make up nearly 16 percent of Fairfax’s overall population. Those numbers drop considerably when applied to the Fairfax County Police Department, where only 4.3 percent of officers are Asian and 4.1 percent Hispanic. White officers make up 84 percent of Fairfax County’s 1,360-member police department, significantly higher than the county’s general population (54 percent white). Almost 90% of the force lives outside the county.